Tipu Sultan's Slippers and Colonel Mordaunt's Cock Match: Footwear, identity and violence in eighteenth-century India by Martin Moran

Following his defeat by the British in 1799, Tipu Sultan’s treasures were plundered and transported back to Britain, including a pair of his slippers, which were collected by Henrietta Clive, and can be seen today in the Clive Museum in Powis Castle. In 1784, Johan Zoffany began a painting of a cockfight showing the Nawab of Awadh, Asaf-ud- Daula engaging with Colonel John Mordaunt of the English East India Company. Mordaunt is one of two Europeans depicted wearing Indian slippers similar to both Asaf’s and Tipu’s. This article considers how these items of Indian clothing were used to create specific European identities, both in India and in Britain, and the role that violence played in enabling these identities to be formed.